This invention relates to the meatpacking industry, and specifically to an apparatus and method used in connection with pulling hides from slaughtered livestock animals.
It has been particularly useful to process beef carcasses using the method generally disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,810,277, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. According to this known method, an ascending loop is used to strip the hide from the loin, highback, flank, rump and tail areas. There is some loosening of the hanging hide using rotary knives which are manipulated by slaughterhouse personnel. The hanging hide is then pulled downwardly either by linear motion or by rotation about a rotary device, preferably while an electrical current is run through the carcass to reduce the risk of vertebrae separation. During this downpulling step, the hide is everted as it is pulled from the head, and then is removed from the downpuller station for further processing.
The downpulling operation requires the exertion of very large forces which can sometimes pull carcasses from the rail. The manual trimming operations with rotary knives sometimes removes excessive meat from the carcass and thus reduces the yield realized in the slaughterhouse operation.
One objective of the present invention is to reduce the amount of trimming which is required prior to the downpulling operation. This reduces labor costs and also reduces waste which otherwise arises when meat is cut so as to remain on the hide rather than the carcass. This objective is realized because less trimming is required due to the larger forces which can be exerted during the downpulling operation.
Another object of the invention is to reduce the number of incidents when the downpuller pulls the carcass off of its rail or other support.
Another object of the invention is to reduce the number of incidents when the downpuller pulls the carcass off of its rail or other support.